Automated monitoring of compliance in an egg farm based on egg counts

Abstract

Techniques for automatically monitoring and analyzing compliance of an egg farm based, at least in part, on egg count data. Sensors are configured to collect various data, including egg count data, throughout an egg farm. A rules engine correlates the egg count data with other types of data collected from the sensors, and analyzes the data to determine a compliance status of hens and / or eggs. The rules engine may analyze the collected data by estimating a current and / or future status of compliance. The rules engine may compare the estimated and / or predicted compliance status with one or more rules to determine whether action should be taken. Based on the analysis, the rules engine may generate location alerts and / or instructions regarding potential non-compliance. The alerts and / or instructions may be provided to one or more reporting devices.

Description

BACKGROUND[0001]The commercial egg production industry relies on facilities, called egg farms, to produce and package eggs. Egg farms typically have one or more hen houses, which can be multileveled buildings with long rows of special housing units, called battery cages, that each house one or more hens. In some egg farms, called cage-free or free-range farms, the hens are allowed to roam freely inside a building or outside in open air. Many egg farms utilize mechanical transportation mechanisms to automatically collect and package eggs. For example, some egg farms have various egg transporting mechanisms that transport eggs from egg laying hens to processing operations, such as washing, grading, and packaging. Such automated egg collection and packaging mechanisms have enabled egg farms to scale to large dimensions, capable of housing up to hundreds of thousands of egg-laying hens.[0002]Egg farms are typically required to follow rules and / or standards established by various entitie...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

The patent text describes a system for inspecting egg-laying hens and their eggs to ensure safety, quality, efficiency, and productivity of the consumer egg industry. The traditional method relies on human workers to physically inspect the hens and eggs, which can be dangerous and unsanitary. The inventors have developed an automated system that can analyze data related to human behavior and egg count data to determine compliance in the egg farm in real-time, without relying on human labor. This system can help mitigate the spread of disease and ensure the safety of the hens and consumers of the eggs.

Problems solved by technology

In order to provide such detection and handling, traditional hen houses typically rely on human workers to physically inspect up to thousands of hen cages, sometimes in dangerous and unsanitary conditions.

However, such labor-intensive human inspection can be unsafe, inefficient, and prone to errors and / or fraud.

Human inspection is typically limited in its ability to accurately detect unhealthy hens amongst potentially hundreds of thousands of hens that populate what are often dark and cramped conditions in a hen house.

Without prompt and proper detection and handling of unhealthy and / or deceased hens, a hen house may pose a danger to egg-laying hens, workers, and human consumers.

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